The Ark: How It Saved My Life and Love
by Dash99
Summary: Mara's husband, Japheth, will never spend time with her. All he ever does is help his dad build this huge ark! Will Mara take a moment to understand her husband? Or will their relationship fail... This is my first fanfict so please review:)
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: This is a historical fiction story. If you would like to read the true story of the ark and what happened please read Genesis 6-9. Thanks!**

"Mara!" Japheth yelled. "It's done!"I turned around and saw Japheth, my husband, running towards me. One hundred and twenty years ago, God had told my father-in-law to build an ark. The thing was massive, with room for two kinds of every unclean animal and seven of every clean animal. I looked up over the horizon to where I could see pairs of animals starting to amble slowly towards the ark. Japheth eyed me oddly as I stood there holding my toe. A few minutes ago I had kicked a rock in frustration, because all Japheth ever did was work on this stupid boat. The rock had been bigger than I thought, and now my big toe was starting to swell and bruise.

"One hundred and twenty years and now it's done!"

I let go of my foot and we just looked at each other. "Well, you certainly took your time," I said somewhat rude. I said it with two meanings. One being that it had taken so long to build the ark, and two, the main reason, that he had finally taken time to talk to me besides at supper. The ark had taken up all of his time. "When will the water come?" I asked. "I don't know," He replied.

Sapphira and Amaris walked over smiling. "Can you believe it? It's done finally! " They both were talking over top of each other. With Japheth always busy, I had sought out the company of my sister in-laws, which made our relationship, which was at first just a few words here and there, blossom, into a friendship that would last forever. We all started walking to the ark were Noah, his wife Lauren, and Shem and Ham stood. Sapphira went over to Shem and laid her head on his shoulder while Amaris walked over to Ham and slid her small hand that was just starting to wrinkle into his. Japheth and I were the only ones that showed no emotion.

Since Japheth had started building the ark, our relationship got somewhat cold. He never had time to talk with me except at supper, and all he talked about then was the boat. All of the animals were now starting to slowly board the ark.

"Well, looks like back to work I go," Japheth said and walked to where the animals were just starting to go into the boat. Shem and Ham followed him and Noah stayed by the door to make sure that the animals went on slow enough for Shem, Ham, and Japheth to get them into their corresponding pens.


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter 2_

Later that evening all the men came back. "Tonight we go in," Noah said. Everyone just stopped and digested those words. Lauren, Noah's wife, is the one who broke the silence. "Well then, guess we had better eat a lot. This will be our last meal in this house." We ate that last meal in silence, wondering what would happen the following day. Worries and doubts slowly started seeping into my mind. I guess my facial expressions must have shown what I was thinking. Japheth leaned over to me and whispered softly, "God will be with us." I looked at him and wondered if maybe he was done obsessing over the boat...

"Is God really going to flood the earth?" Ham asked softly. "He is," Noah replied. Japheth looked up and gave Noah on of those humorous smiles that he does when he's about to say something that is amusing to him."Oh no, definitely not Ham. We didn't just spend 120 years building a boat when we have never even seen rain in our life's to sit in our yard and people to laugh at us even more!" He smiled over at his brother so that he would know he was joking. I had to smile at that comment. "Do you think we have enough pitch on it?" Japheth asked. There he goes again, I thought, always, always, always, talking about the boat. "Of course we do!" Shem replied. "Although I think Mara has more on her." One day after the three brothers just finished covering the ark in pitch, I had been talking to Lauren and then walked straight into the ark and got wet sticky pitch all over me. I sighed at the memory. We all just sat there.

"It is time to go into the ark," Noah said. We all stood up from the low stone table. I looked at the table covered with clay pitchers, plates and an assortment of fruit and bread. We all followed Noah outside to the ark. It was starting to get chilly. I wrapped my shawl closer around me. I was about to step into the dark ark, that already smelled of animal, then I turned my head and took one last look at my old home, then looked ahead into the darkness of my new.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: This is the final chapter! Thank you for reading this story, and please, review!**

For seven days we just sat. Nothing happened. It was a time of squabbling mainly, "Hey, watch where you are going!" My poor big toe was stepped on so many times. Japheth and I got into many arguments. I didn't like animals and he wanted me to feed them and clean their pens. "Your father said that you had to clean out the pens!" I said to him "Yes, he did, but you need to help me," he replied. "I don't want to," I argued. "Mara, we all have to help with all the work. You can't just sit around and do nothing." "Who says I can't?" I challenged. So that is how my first days were spent. Every day for seven days, that's what I did - argued with Japheth. But, on the eighth day, something new happened. Noah and Lauren had just finished lighting some candles so that we could see when we heard a sound that we have never heard before. It was the rain. It came so fast. At first, it just soundly dully on the roof of the ark, but then it came up from underneath us. We all ran to the top deck where Noah propped open the window so we could see. It was horrifying. People screamed and tried to save themselves, lighting crashed and thunder roared. It was terrifying.

_SWOOSH!_ Water had reached the ark and the sound was the ark being ripped up from the ground. The force of it knocked me off balance. I was about to fall when Japheth popped up and caught me. I smiled at him. However, it was not over. The boat lurched and swayed making us sick. Pouring down constantly, the rain never ceased. Finally, the rain stopped after 40 days. I kept busy though. The whole earth was still covered in water and we had to stay in the ark. All of the animals needed tending to. Japheth had won the arguments. I didn't do it happily until one day; a cute little zebra nudged my leg for some food. It was so cute! Every day I fed her and her mate, along with countless others.

I also noticed some other changes. The ark forced our whole family to be together. My relationship with Japheth grew stronger. We slowly quit arguing. One day he saw me in with the zebras, petting them and taking a spare rag and wiping them until they gleamed. He walked in and sat beside me and started petting the zebras too. I think he started understanding that boats, hammers, and fishing aren't exactly things that I enjoyed talking about. He started asking me what I liked, and, for some reason, I found talking about things that interested him more interesting for me. It was odd. I also realized that God popped up more in our conversations. We both trusted God more than when Noah first told us about the whole endeavor.

One day, I discovered that one of the doves went missing. I was about to go tell Japheth when I ran into Noah. "Noah, one of the doves is missing," I said. He put his big-callused wrinkled hand on my shoulder. "It's ok. I know where it is." "Where?" I asked. He ignored my question. "Why don't you go help Lauren get some food ready for us?" I shuffled off a little suspicious.

A week later, the dove was gone again! Again, I told Noah and he replied the same as the past times. Again, it came back. Then, the following week, the dove was gone again. I decided to tell Japheth. "I don't know. What did my dad tell you?" I told him what Noah had said. "Hmmm, I don't know." This time the dove didn't come back. I was worried about the dove. I was about to ask Noah about the bird when he called us all together to tell us something. But he didn't tell us anything he went over to where the sealed door was and pushed on it. Shem, Ham, and Japheth walked over to help him. They pushed the door open and the missing dove flew and perched on Noah's arm. Japheth looked at me and I looked back at him. We both started running. We collapsed on the soft green grass. Shem, Sapphira, ham and Amaris all followed suit. Then we all stood up and gave thanks to God.

Noah brought out some lambs and goats, and made an altar to the lord. We all were giving thanks, I looked around at my family and the setting reminded me of something familiar but I couldn't remember what. Japheth and I were starting to walk over to where Noah was when I stubbed my toe on a rock. Then I remembered what this scene reminded me of, except this time, I was holding Japheth's hand.

Noah suddenly pointed up towards the sky. We all looked up and up there was a beautiful rainbow. I looked up then around, and I felt this overabundance of love and joy that only God can give.


End file.
